On Boxing Day 1899, the dancers of Headington Quarry, led by their musician William Kimber, were seen performing at Sandfield Cottage in Headington by the folk musicologist Cecil Sharp - who hitherto had been unaware of the survival of this native form of dancing.
This cardinal meeting proved to be the springboard of the whole modern folk revival.
The team has a recorded history stemming from the late 1700's and the present club (which was reformed after the second World War in 1947) still contains dancers who received their tuition in the Headington tradition directly from William Kimber himself (dd 1961), some of whom are direct descendants of the 1899 dancers. They also do a mumming play and rapper dance.